258 THE HORSE BOOK. 



or not treated properly chronic laminitis en- 

 sues. In such cases the soles of the feet come 

 down and the horse walks on his heels, being 

 practically worthless. Even this condition is 

 not incurable for I have known a horse whose 

 soles were very badly do'wn recover under he- 

 roic treatment and later go as sound as ever he 

 did. It is doubtful if it would pay to go to so 

 much trouble and expense with the general run 

 of horses suffering from chronic founder. I 

 mention this case to show that within my per- 

 sonal experience chronic founder has been cured 

 and the lowered soles of the feet elevated to 

 their normal position. 



Azoturia has become more common of late 

 years than it was in the days when horses were 

 not as highly fed as they are now. Cause of 

 this malady is continued high feeding of grain 

 during suddenly enforced idleness. A horse, 

 commonly worldng hard, may be kept in the 

 stable for a couple of days and be given his 

 usual ration of grain without any exercise. On 

 being hooked up again he will start off blythely, 

 but after a short part of the road has been cov- 

 ered he will come to a standstill, break out in a 

 profuse sweat and stagger to a fall. The cause 

 of the disease is simply that in idleness the 

 eliminatory channels have not been able to re- 

 move the waste matter from the system. It 

 takes exercise to develop the malady and an in- 

 fallible syraptom is the dark, almost black, color 



